This course provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-led political system.
In Semester 1, we examine key categories of organization, ideology, space, population, and order to explore how China has developed over the past century. With a particular focus on the establishment of the PRC, this first module (of two) moves beyond familiar stereotypes of China and the CCP. It asks us not only to think about the structures and processes of governance, but also the ideologies that underpin them in a country marked by vast geography and diverse populations.
Throughout the course, we are guided by two core questions. First, how can we explore and understand the complexities of China—its people, society, politics, economy, and environment? Second, how do Chinese politics operate under the Party-state system, and how does the CCP in particular interact with other institutions while leveraging its mechanisms of control?
Taken together, we are interested in how these processes have evolved throughout China’s history, how they manifest in the present, and how they might develop in the future.
